New England based, one-man metal project Autumns Eyes has taken a break from working on the upcoming album "Please Deceive Me" to contribute a cover song and handle the engineering duties for Metalunderground.com's upcoming Peter Steele tribute.

Drawing on a wide range of influences and working with many different styles, Autumns Eyes has released symphonic black metal heavy outings like "Surrender the Fire," as well as less heavy and more progressive albums such as "Abandoned Expression."

Following-up our last interview, which focused more on horror movies, Autumns Eyes mastermind Dan Mitchell has now posted a new video interview to discuss the upcoming tribute album. You can watch the clip below to hear Dan talk about his exposure to Type O Negative and learning about Peter Steele passing away last year.

A text transcription of the interview is available below, and a variety of free Autumns Eyes songs are available for download at the band's official website if you'd like to get familiar with the music before the release of the Peter Steele tribute album.

xFiruath: When did you first get exposed to Type O Negative?

Dan: I don’t remember how or why, I just knew a lot of people were listening to him. A lot of kids in high school were goth kids so it was a popular thing to listen to around there. People hung out in graveyards a lot, drank booze, and listened to Type O Negative. That was the thing to do.

Dan: Favorite music video would probably be for “Black No. 1,” just because Peter is holding a fucking standup bass in it. He’s like ten times the size of a normal band member, but he’s holding it like a fucking banjo.

xFiruath: Where were you when the news broke that Peter had died?

Dan: I was laying in bed, surfing Twitter at like three in the morning for some reason. I think it was Mistress Juliya who was posting a tweet saying that there was a rumor going around that Peter had passed away. I didn’t know what to think at first, because he had faked his own death before, we all know that. But then I eventually found out he did pass away. I was hit pretty hard by it. He was definitely an icon to me growing up, so I took it pretty hard.

xFiruath: What else has been going on with Autumns Eyes lately?

Dan: I’ve been trying for the past 35 years to finish this new album “Please Deceive Me” for Autumns Eyes. It was supposed to come out last year, the year before that, the year before that. The decade before that. Shit keeps happening. I had hand surgery that got in the way. Once this tribute gets out there then I can put my time back into the new album and finish that sometime within the next 125 years.

xFiruath: Been to any good shows lately?

Dan: No, actually the last show I was at was Type O Negative at Rock and Shock. It was a horror movie convention they did in Worcester. I was completely wasted and I got kicked out of the bathroom for smoking cigarettes.

xFiruath: Does your band have any upcoming live shows?

Dan: Does my band have any upcoming live shows? Guys, do we have….no, nothing.

xFiruath: Who do you see as the “new breed” of influential metal icons?

Dan: That’s really tough to say. Johnny Kelly (Type O Negative drummer) was just saying the other day that we’re due for the next big thing. In the ‘90s when I was growing up we had Nirvana, that was the big thing. Today I don’t know, it’s a shot in the dark. Everybody is copying each other and everybody wants to be louder than each other.

xFiruath: Anything else you’d like to add?

Dan: I want to send a thank you to all the bands and Ty and Doug at Metalunderground for helping out with this tribute. I had a blast working on it. I never thought it would turn into what’s it become now and I’m very, very pleased. All the bands did a really stellar job on it. They put their own time, money, effort, whatever it took into this thing and it really came out in the end. Regardless of what anybody says, you’ve got to give these bands respect for doing what they did and sticking to their guns. Like I’ve said before, Type O Negative was known for sticking their guns and being very unique. When they did their covers of “Cinnamon Girl” and “Summer Breeze,” not everybody liked those, but they stuck to their guns and did it because that’s what they did. They didn’t cave in to any trends or what anybody else said.

Ty Arthur is a freelance writer who writes for both entertainment and technical instruction sites. An avid fan of many different forms of metal, he has been involved in reviewing music for several years and is currently a contributing editor for Metalunderground.com

After hearing your song, I was intrigued and went searching for other music you do. I think I have listened to about six of your videos now! Do yourself a favor and put out that album, now that you have time. You have an individual sound.